The present invention relates to a side brake device which activates despite failure to apply, and the purpose thereof is to provide a side brake device which can prevent not only accidents occurred due to an operator fails to apply a side brake, but also accidents occurred due to a side brake not being applied properly.
Generally speaking, a side brake (parking brake) device used for cars is constructed so that it brakes due to a brake cable being pulled by a side brake lever set on an operator""s sheet side being pulled upward by an operator.
However, with the existing side brake devices, unless an operator intentionally pulls a side brake upward, a brake cable will not be pulled, thus, in a case of an operator carelessly forgets a pull-up operation of a side brake, it results in a condition wherein a side brake is not applied, causing a risk of big accidents occured by a car running recklessly.
As for an art which takes consideration of such actual circumstances, there is a Japanese patent publication, Jitsukaisho 64-14557, for example.
A device disclosed in this Japanese Jitsukaisho 64-14557 comprises a cable means which connects a side brake lever and a door by a drive, and together with an opening movement of the door, it moves a side brake to a direction to which a brake being firmly applied.
With this disclosed art, together with the opening of the door, the side brake lever can be rotated into the direction to which a brake being firmly applied, thus, the side brake can be applied by an open-close operation of the door when an operator gets off the car, and although this art is outstanding in a way that it can lower the risk of accidents which occur due to a failure of applying the brake, there is a grave defect described in the below.
That is, since this disclosed art is such wherein the opening of the door and the upward rotation of the side brake are simply geared, the condition of the brake is geared to the opening of the door. For example, when a lady who is small gets off a car without opening a door very widely, an upward rotation of a side brake gets smaller, thus, it is dangerous because it leads to a condition where the brake is not well applied.
Unfortunately indeed, there is no end to accidents occurred due to a failure of applying a side brake, and many people die in such accidents each year.
Within such accidents occurred due to a failure of applying a side brake, apart from accidents due to a complete failure to apply a side brake, there are many accidents occurred due to a failure to pull a side brake properly.
Referring to such actual circumstance, in Japan Tokkaihei 5-178174, the inventor of this patent application has already invented a side brake device which can be applied automatically with a movement of a door in spite of how much the door is open, by continually energizing a side brake lever into a direction to which a brake being firmly applied with an elastic body, and has been successful in solving the above mentioned problems.
However, with such side brake device, there are still problems left, that is, if the elasticity of the elastic body gets insufficient, the elasticity cannot be assisted by an action of an operator, and moreover, if it is a condition wherein the door is closed, an operator cannot pull up the side brake lever by oneself.
So, the present inventor has continued a further devoted study, and has come to be successful in inventing a side brake device which enables to completely apply the brake either by a manual operation or by an opening movement of a door, and can completely prevent not only accidents occurred due to an operator fails to apply the side brake, but also accidents occurred due to the side brake not being applied properly.
The present invention is a side brake device, wherein a pivot of a lever is pivotally supported rotatably on a fixed plate located at an operator""s seat side, a side brake wire is fixed to one end of said lever and the one end of an elastic body is fixed to the other end thereof, the lever is energized by said elastic body so that it is always rotated in the direction to apply a side brake by pulling the side brake wire, a side brake lever is installed so that it can be rotated by a fixed amount to which a fitting pin of a holding means can be taken off by an upward rotation, relative to the lever, a wire is passed from one end of said side brake lever through the other end of said lever to an appropriate position of a door at where the side brake lever can be rotated upward due to the wire being pulled by the opening of the door, and the lever is rotated downward against the energizing force of the elastic body so as to loosen the side brake wire and release the side brake, the lever is held by a holding means at the lever releasing position, holding by said holding means is released by the opening of the door or upward manual rotating operation of the side brake lever, and the lever is rotated in the direction that the side brake wire is tensed by the energizing force of said elastic body so as to firmly apply the side brake, and it relates to a side brake device wherein said holding means is installed at one end of said lever with one end passing through lower end of a vertical portion of the side brake lever, the other end comprising the fitting pin fit into a fitting concave portion provided on the fixed plate, upward rotation of the pivot is impeded due to the fitting pin being fit into the fitting concave portion, and the fitting pin is made to separate from the fitting concave portion by upward rotation of the side brake lever.